In Rob Gronkowski they (must) trust

Lost amid the shirtless cellphone pics, Dunkin' Donuts ads, theatrical end zone spikes and Great Dane personality is the fact that Gronkowski is playing tight end as well as anyone ever has.

JONATHAN COMEY

There are plenty of examples of style over substance in the world of football.

Chad Ochocinco comes to mind, at least in the latter stages of his career where he was more Twitter amusement than football player. Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush, Mark Sanchez — sometimes the guy on the poster and in the pizza commercial just isn't that great when it's all said and done.

But when it comes to the curious case of Rob Gronkowski, it's more like style obscuring substance.

Lost amid the shirtless cellphone pics, Dunkin' Donuts ads, theatrical end zone spikes and Great Dane personality is the fact that Gronkowski is playing tight end as well as anyone ever has — maybe as well as anyone has played any position — and that the Patriots are only Super Bowl favorites if he's healthy enough to play that level.

"He's a heck of a football player," Patriots safety Steve Gregory said of Gronkowski. "We all know what type of threat he is in the pass game but then his physicality the way he can block and the way he understands this offense in the run game is great so anytime he's out there with us it's great."

Gregory got to see him a little bit in Week 2 of 2011 when he was still playing for San Diego, and can boast that the only pass thrown to Gronkowski in his area that week was incomplete. It's not a common occurrence, as a detailed look inside Gronkowski's numbers will show, and Gregory doesn't have much doubt that his now-teammate is the best in the business.

"Absolutely man, Gronk's the best," Gregory said. "I love him. He works really hard, he's a competitive guy that takes pride in what he does and the amount of effort and hard work that he puts into his profession is second to none. You've got to love a guy like that."

"He's a guy that actually wants to go out and get better every day," running back Brandon Bolden said. "Me being a rookie, he is a person you really hear about. He's the top tight end in the league, so you would think he would just go out there and kind of shoot the breeze but he actually works hard and you just feed off that and it makes you want to work hard too."

There are plenty of great tight ends in the league now, but all come with caveats. Jason Witten doesn't score touchdowns. Jimmy Graham is a so-so blocker and drops too many passes. Tony Gonzalez is a downright bad blocker, and doesn't get big chunks of yardage. Guys who punish you in the run game usually punish their quarterbacks with their inability to get open or catch the ball.

But Gronkowski does it all, and not just well — with over-the-top excellence.

I don't want to go too far down into the stat dungeon and lose you, but the numbers are so spectacular that I'll take the risk.

Start with the blocking. The best source for judging line play is the peerless Pro Football Focus, which tracks every player on every play through intense review of each game.

A look at Gronkowski's Pro Football Focus grades from 2011 show a player whose consistency matched his excellence. His game-by-game grades are all good, it was just a question of how good.

In 2011, he was graded as the No. 1 run-blocking tight end in the league out of 64 qualifying guys to play at least 25 percent of their team's snaps. And Tom Brady's passer rating on throws to No. 87 was 142.6 — dangerously close to the perfect number of 158.3 you get for throwing a TD on every pass.

Surely he took a step back here in 2012, right? Wrong. He was graded No. 4 out of 62 qualifying tight ends in run blocking, and projected to be No. 1 over a complete 16-game schedule. Brady's passer rating throwing to Gronkowski was even better, 143.9.

I knew before I started my research that Gronkowski was good, but frankly I'm flabbergasted by just how good.

In two years, Brady has thrown to Gronkowski 198 times, completed 145 of them, 28 of them for touchdowns, two of them for interceptions.

And here's the coup de grace: Brady's passer rating throwing to Gronk in 2011-12 is 143.3. His passer rating throwing to anyone else over those two years? 92.8.

That is a big deal, folks, as big as the man occupying the No. 87.

It wasn't a surprise to hear Brady play it close to the vest on Gronk Wednesday, calling him "a very good player" before transitioning into generalities. "Comes down to execution "» we've got a lot of good players on our roster "» it's really a team effort from us. "» whoever is out there, we have to go out and execute well."

Privately, though, Brady surely knows that Gronkowski is the difference maker on that offense. Rewind time to the 2011 playoffs, warn Gronkowski to steer clear of noted season-ruiner Bernard Pollard, and the Patriots ride a healthy No. 87 to a Super Bowl crown.

Instead "» well, you know.

"When the Patriots are without him, their running game has to overcome the drop off from Gronkowski to (Aaron) Hernandez who is anything but a capable blocker in the run game," said Pro Football Focus analyst Sam Monson. "Luckily they were able to supplement that with the play of Daniel Fells, who blocked well in his snaps this year, but that alerts the defense to run plays, whereas Gronkowski poses an equal threat to a defense on any given play in both the run and pass game."

Gronkowski is still limited with his hip and forearm injuries, and he looked about as ready to play against Miami as he did in the Super Bowl last year — that wasn't the real Gronk, and that's not a good thing for New England.

Wes Welker and Hernandez are weapons, Danny Woodhead and Brandon Lloyd are dangerous, and that Brady guy is no slouch. But it's Gronkowski that takes them from good to great — and with the defense a streaky proposition against top opposition, great is what they need.

In the history of tight ends, only Mike Ditka ever did what Rob Gronkowski has now done two years running, as a rookie with the 1961 Chicago Bears.

Considering the run-first mindset of the era and the 14-game season, Ditka's line of 56-1,076-12 is truly one of the greatest ever.

It's worth noting, though, that Ditka never repeated that level success, and his career arc dropped by increments as age, injury and NFL defenses caught up to him a bit.

And there's the rub. Like Ditka, Gronkowski plays the game so well and so hard that there is a constant focus on him; he stays on his feet, fights for extra yards, and takes a pounding. His longterm future, after two major injuries in two seasons, is no sure thing.

But it's the near future that's the main concern for Patriot fans hungry for another title.

"He's a hard worker and a physical specimen," defensive lineman Brandon Deaderick, who was drafted in the same now-legendary 2010 class as Gronkowski. "I'm glad I'm with him instead of going against him. He's a great combination of someone that can be a receiving tight end and a top blocker as well. He is everything you would want in a tight end and we are definitely very fortunate to have him."

If they can be fortunate enough to have him close to 100 percent for the next month, the sky's the limit. If not "» they might need a little good fortune to get where they want to go.

Jonathan Comey is sports and features editor for The Standard-Times. Email him at jcomey@s-t.com. Andrew Tornetta contributed to this report.